Trapped in A Dream
by Mistrus
Summary: Hermione Granger is stunk in her own mind after being hit by an unknown curse. The man she meets in her mind startles her. Do they find love or kill each other? ONE-SHOT


This is probably a horrible one-shot but it wouldn't leave me alone at all. I couldn't focus on my other stories so i just jotted it out quickly. hope you like it. Although it make be quite bad. I don't know.

Enjoy!

**Disclaimer**- I own nothing

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**Trapped in a Dream**

**By Mistrus**

For the first time since the end of the final battle, Hermione Granger, opened her eyes. She had expected the Weasleys, Harry and concerned loved ones to be crowding around her bed side. But instead she opened her eyes to a small room. The ceiling was an off white and she turned her head, wincing slightly. Two of the walls were a deep red. The other two were a light gray. She sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the king sized bed she was sitting in. The room had no doors, no windows. She rubbed her eyes to look once again. She stood up and ran her hands along all four walls. Nothing was there indicating a door or the slightest hint there ever was one. She stepped around the elegant furniture to try again.

"You won't find anything. So I suggest you stop looking." She whirled around. A tall handsome man around her age sat in one of the chairs. She thought he looked familiar but she didn't know where she had ever seen him. His black hair was slightly grown out, as if he hadn't had it cut in awhile. His piercing blue eyes stared into her brown ones. He smirked slightly

"How did you…" The man shrugged.

"I come and go as I please." Hermione frowned.

"Why can't I?" The man chuckled. It was a cold sound.

"Because I don't want you too." Hermione stiffened.

"Let me out!" She scowled and brushed her hand through her hair in aggravation. The man watched the action with curiosity.

"No. Even if I had the power." She glared at him coldly and sat on a black loveseat.

"Great. I'm stuck in here with a deluded escapee." The man chuckled.

"I do have a name." Hermione huffed.

"I know. I've seen you before." She looked thoughtful. "Somewhere." The man sat and watched her. Hermione snapped back to reality.

"Stop it!" The words were hissed out. The man smirked.

"What? Stop staring at you?" Hermione gave an irritated nod. The man shook his head.

"You are something else. Do you understand where you are yet?" Hermione gave him a baffled look.

"No." There was a small note of fear in her voice. The man relaxed slightly and trying to put her at ease.

"You aren't actually awake. You are still in your body at St. Mungo's. The curse that hit you. They still don't know what it was. Most likely you won't wake up and your family will make the decision to let you die rather than keep you on life support. Oh, how the mighty have fallen." Hermione glared at him.

"I… I…" She sighed. "Thank you for telling me." Her shoulders slumped in defeat. All hope that she would truly wake up was gone. The man frowned.

"How long have I been out?" The man shrugged the frown still firmly on his face.

"Two weeks, thirteen hours, and seventeen minutes." Hermione gave a small shadow of a smile. She could faintly remember doing that to count down to her OWLs. She looked at her hands in her denim clad lap. She slowly played with her nails. The man watched her intently once again as the silence stretched on. "Did it hurt?" Hermione's head snapped up.

"Huh?" the man looked at her frowning, as if worried.

"Did the curse, hurt you at all?" She shook her head and the man visibly relaxed. Hermione didn't notice. She closed her eyes remembering the feelings she had, had.

"There was… a purplish light… a slightly warm tingling… then nothing. Nothing at all." The man nodded.

"Good. As long as you weren't hurt." Hermione looked at him.

"Why do you care?" The man shrugged.

"I just do." That effectively ended their conversation.

* * *

For the next few hours they sat in silence. Hermione pondering her life and the man watching her as if she was some priceless treasure he had to study. Hermione didn't notice his appreciation, or the longing that was held in his cold blue eyes. Finally Hermione looked at him, her eyes were slightly glazed, but they still held her intelligence. It was a faint gleam but the man could notice how it burned with triumph.

"Tom… Marvelo… Riddle… Junior." The man smirked.

"The one and only." Hermione got up and started pacing. Tom's eyes followed her every movement. She finally noticed, her eyes came alive with sudden fury.

"Stop it! Stop staring!" Tom gave a faint smirk but didn't remove his eyes from her face. A faint blush stained her cheeks from her anger. Her hair seemed to crackle with power and her chocolate brown eyes danced with a deep fire.

"No." Hermione glared at him.

"And why not?" She crossed her arms and glared at him haughtily.

"Because I feel you are worth staring at." Hermione's cheeks bloomed with a red flush. Tom smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Find that as a surprise? I'm surprised no one else has noticed what a beautiful woman you are becoming." The blush deepened, his smirked grew wider.

"You look adorable blushing." Hermione glared at him and turned her back to him. "You have a nice ass." Hermione whipped around.

"Excuse me?" Tom blushed slightly.

"That _wasn't _supposed to be said out loud." She sat down on the loveseat and pulled her knees up to her chest. She rested her chin on them and watched him as he had watched her.

"Why are you being so… nice to me?" She sighed and pushed an errant curl out of her face. "Aren't I supposed to be… beneath you? I mean I'm a Mudblo-" She couldn't finish her sentence because Riddle had moved with incredible speed and stood in front of her. His face mere centimeters from her's. Her eyes were wide with shock. He gripped her upper arm.

"Don't _ever_ call yourself that!?" His voice was a cruel whisper as he grasped her arm tightly. "Don't ever _think _that!" His breathing slowed and his grip loosened.

"Don't ever let anyone make you think you aren't worth anything!" He looked into her eyes as if searching for something. "Don't let anyone tell you, that you aren't worth it. You are worth every second, of everyday. You are worth more than those who stand over your bedside. You are worth more than those who stopped coming." He slowly cupped the side of her face.

"_You _are worth it." He watched her intently for her reaction. "You were never below me. It is I who doesn't deserve to breathe the same air as you. I am not worth the ground you walk on." Hermione frowned with puzzlement.

"But that doesn't make sense. You should hate me. You are the one who wanted to liberate the wizarding world of muggles and muggleborns." Her face was truly confused. Her tone showed that she truly didn't mean to insult anyone. Tom's hand traveled down her bare arm to grasp her hand.

"I know. I did. But I never hated you. I admired you. Your bravery, your courage, your strength. You are the only person in the whole entire world that I admired. When I realized it, it was too late. You were gone." He sighed and slowly caressed the top of her hand. She shivered and goosebumps followed his soft touch. He looked at her with searching eyes. "When Harry told me that he pitied me because I could never know love or friendship. I laughed at him. Called him a fool. But over time I realized he was right. I have never loved, never had friends. I never knew that! I wanted too. More than anything in this world or the next. What is immortality without having someone, anyone to share it with? So I let him kill me. I put up a bit of a fight I know, but I let him win. I couldn't just come out and say to the people, that I, Lord Voldemort, wanted to stop the fighting because I wanted to know what love feels like. I would have been laughed at. Ridiculed. So I let young Potter win." Hermione watched him in a new light. Gone was the cold, evil man that fought Harry. The man that ordered counts muggles to die. And in his place was someone that Hermione did not know. But she knew he was a man who wanted something so bad that he would probably cross whole worlds just to find it.

"Why? Why change your mind now?" A ghost of a smile crossed his mouth.

"Because I found someone. Someone I had admired for her talent. So I cursed her. A curse that everyone thought was gone forever. I made it so she could not wake up unless I wanted her to. But I am dead. I have no power. So she is stuck with me. I never wanted to cast that fate onto her. I never wanted to bind her to me for all time. I assure you it was not my intentions, Hermione. I never wanted this for you." Hermione gave him a small smile.

"I believe you. But what about my other life? What about my family?" He gave her a sorrowful look.

"I didn't think... I was selfish. I wanted you to myself. To make you fall in love with me, as I did with you." He gave her a hopeful smile. "You showed me what it is like to love. You did what Harry said was impossible. When Bellatrix was... when she was..." Hermione's expression was unreadable.

"When she was torturing me." He gave a slight nod.

"Yes. I realized that I just couldn't. I stopped her. Watching you was like getting my heart torn out. That if you died, I didn't think I could go on living. You were the only thing I lived for. So I created a plan to trap you here. To see if you could ever love me back." Hermione slowly brought her hand up to caress his jaw. His eyes closed at the contact.

"I fell in love with an eighteen year old, in a memory, in a pensieve, in Dumbledore's office. For hours I would spend going over Dumbledore's memories, searching for a clue. A weakness. While I saw nothing to show a weakness, I did see a quick humor, a bright smile that makes everyone else want to smile too. I saw the evil but I could see something inherently good as well. I found myself listening to his voice, instead of what he was saying. I caught myself looking into cold blue eyes watching a simmering warm in their depths." She caressed his cheek bone with her thumb. She could feel him shiver at the touch.

"I wished that maybe I would be able to meet him face to face. To tell him how I felt. Then I realized how pointless it was. That boy was gone forever. I was so tempted to use the Time Turner to go back and talk to him. Even if it was for just a minute." She sighed. "Then the war came and I opened my eyes in this room instead of the hospital. I realized once I saw you. That I had gotten my wish." She looked at him with warm eyes. Her thumb caressed his cheek slowly.

"Tom Marvelo Riddle Junior. I, Hermione Granger, even though it seems impossible and unreal, love you irrevocably and totally. I cannot love anyone but you." He looked at her before giving her a broad smile.

"I, Tom Marvelo Riddle, fell in love with a girl that has such passion and courage, I cannot hope to ever love anyone else. She is my first and last love. And I wonder how she can possibly love me back." Hermione gently brushed his hair away from his face. He leaned forward and kissed her. It was hesitant and shy but it made her shiver and curl her hands in his hair and deepen the kiss. He pulled back. He looked at her and sighed.

"I love you Hermione Granger. Nothing will change that. I will wait for you until you can return. Live for both of us." Hermione reached for him realizing what he was going to do.

"Please don't! Don't leave me!" He gave her a sad smile and kissed her passionately. She held on to him tightly but he pulled out of her grasp.

"I will wait for you. Only you. Hermione, I love you. Always remember that. _Finite Incantum_." Her world dissolved to grey and she sobbed out, feeling her heart tear out of her chest.

* * *

She could hear the steady beating off a heart rate monitor and the voices of people outside her door. Her eyes opened and she started sobbing as she saw the tiled ceiling of a hospital room. Worried voices rushed into the room but she couldn't hear what they were saying over the rushing in her ears, of the pounding of her heart. He was gone. Gone. Like he had never been there before. She could feel the ghost of a kiss brush over her lips. A phantom breath brushed over her ear. _Hermione, I love you. Always remember that_. Slowly her sobbing subsided as she held onto his love. It surrounded her completely, filling her up. She became aware of voices.

"Hermione? Please say something!" It was Ronald. Hermione turned to the sound. The Weasleys stood behind their youngest son. She looked at Lavender Brown who stood by Ron's shoulder. Her hand clasped in his. Harry was nowhere to be seen.

"Ron. Arthur, Molly. Fred... or is it George. Charlie, Bill, Fleur. Ginny." She looked at each person and nodded at them. She leaned back against the head board. "You were all discussing to keep me on life support." It was a statement, not a question. All of them smiled at her. She shook her head.

"You should have let me die." Harry walked around them and looked at his best friend.

"That's what I said. I said you would be happier." Hermione held out her hand and he took it before sitting on the edge of her bed. He leaned over. "Did you meet him?" She nodded.

"Did he tell you?" One more nod. Harry smiled and pushed his glasses up. "Good. But will he wait?" Hermione let out a sob and clung to Harry tightly.

"Yes. Yes. He will wait." Harry gathered her into his arms.

"Make sure you live for him too." The words were low but Hermione heard his meaning clearly. She agreed. She would live enough for the two of them.

* * *

Hermione looked at her friends and smiled.

"I am leaving. No use in crying or moping. I'm going to a better place. This body is too broken. I told you, Ron. I can't fly. I knew this would happen." Ron hung his head in guilt. She smiled. "Hey, don't be sad. Don't feel guilty about it. I am thanking you. You helped me get to my goal. It was an accident, Ron. It isn't your fault." He looked up.

"But if I hadn't-" She lifted a hand with great difficulty.

"Don't think about it. I am going to a better place. I've lived as long as I could. I can't wait any more." She turned to her best friend. "I'm going to him. Oh, and Harry." He leaned over her broken body laying in the hospital bed.

"Yes, Hermione?" She smirked.

"He let you win." Her breathing slowed and she closed her eyes for the last time. Harry smiled down at his friend.

"Figures." He looked around. "I know Hermione was young. But no one should have survived a hundred foot fall off of a broom into a forest." Ginny glared at him.

"If you would have let the Healers take care of her, she would be alive!" Harry smiled.

"I didn't make that call. She did. Besides she had been waiting for this for over thirty years. As she said. She couldn't wait any longer. Let just bury her and move on. She doesn't want us to be sad. It was her motto." Ron smiled for the first time.

"Yes. 'Live for the both of us.' She lived by that." Harry nodded.

"So all of us. Live for her as well as ourselves. Let her live on." They all nodded and smiled. Ginny smiled brightly.

"Remember the time she yelled at Draco for calling her that name?" They all chuckled. She was worth more than that. She didn't let his taunts pull her down. She knew that she was worth something.

* * *

"I told you I would wait." Hermione launched herself at him.

"I know! I didn't lose hope and I lived for the two of us." Tom smiled.

"I am glad. Now we need to move on. But this time. We will do it together." Hermione nodded and kissed him and sighed softly. She was home at last.

"I love you." He smiled.

"I know. And I love you too." She smiled at him.

"You were worth the wait." He laughed.

"You are worth every second, of every day." She laughed back at him. They both turned to the light.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Tom grasped her hand tightly.

"I don't know. But at least we will be together." Hermione gave a small smile.

"From now till forever." Tom kissed her knuckles and they both stepped into their new life.

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Well what do you think? Please tell me cause this is my first one shot.


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